The rest is just a shadow
by Blizdal
Summary: Pre-series. Jughead and family and the Southside.


Author's Note: I had thoughts on Southside Serpents and Jughead and I was going to make some bullet points about it on Tumblr, but instead it turned into a short fic covering the events pre-series.

I have only recently started watching the third season, so there are a lot of things I don't know. I have been spoiled a bit, but I don't like what I heard and I don't know the context of things so I'm going to ignore what little I know. Except for the name of Jughead's mom. I don't remember if it had been mentioned before season 3.

* * *

Jughead is five when FP comes back drunk for the first time (so drunk he stumbles and clutches the door frame for support).

His mother glares and doesn't help, just swears at him as he makes his way to bed. She is still glaring in the morning when they are eating their breakfast and his father tries to rub the hungover headache away.

It will be a few years before he catches his father stumbling in again. He doesn't stop drinking. He just sleeps it off before anyone can see. It doesn't happen often, just often enough that his child mind remembers and registers it as familiar.

It's not a problem at that point, just a beginning of one. (it takes a while for someone to become an alcoholic)

* * *

He plays with his father's jacket sometime. Traces the snake on the back. The snake on his mother's jacket is different and he thinks this one is prettier. He tries to put it on. It's heavy and too big and he feels like a big boy when it's on. He wonders if he'll ever get one of his own. If Jellybean will get hers as well.

His mother ruffles his hair fondly and says _when you're older; _FP stands behind her looking stricken. (_Never_, FP vows to himself. _Never_.)

* * *

People in Serpent jackets come to the trailer often.

Some are friends who come inside and hang out with their parents. They are boisterous and fun and they admire Jellybean's pigtails and teach Jughead how to handle a knife (when his dad is distracted, mostly. He doesn't stop it when he sees it happening, but the look on his face is different. Not amused. He grits his teeth when they start doing it with Jellybean as well. Still, he says nothing.).

Some who come around never come inside. They talk with his dad in hushed whispers, usually at night. Always respectful, never loud. The neighbours pretend not to notice. Most of them have jackets of their own. (A snake den is full of snakes after all).

* * *

His dad drives him and Jellybean on his bike, slowly, so slowly and carefully and they scream in delight and FP looks at them, eyes shining with love, so happy. Their mom stands on the street, watching, waving each time they pass her by, a smile on her face big and bright.

Archie is his best friend in the whole wide world and Mr. Andrews is awesome and Mrs. Andrews is awesome.

* * *

Betty is okay. Sometimes it bothers him that Archie invites her but she's not too bad. She is his best friend's best friend and he can share but that doesn't mean she has to be his best friend as well. She lives just across the street and sometimes she even wanders over without being invited. It bothers him a bit but-

Sometimes Jughead wishes he could invite Archie over to his place but no one seems to like that idea that one time he mentioned it so he doesn't ask again.

They always meet on the Northside.

* * *

His dad and Mr. Andrews work together and dad seems happy.

-until around that time when he is dumped on the sofa by Tall Boy and there is a lot of shouting and blood and needles, in his father's skin, and Jughead is standing by the door, in his PJs, shaking, until his mother sees him and grabs him and drags him into the other room and charges him with watching Jellybean.

_Don't come out_, she says, and he doesn't. Jellybean is frightened and she tries to leave the room but he hugs her and doesn't let her.

Their father is still alive the next day. He is in pain, and there are white bandages covering half of his torso and his arms, but he smiles when he sees his kids and he kisses the tops of their heads and says _I love you_.

* * *

For a few months after that he and Jellybean don't go anywhere alone, not even to the corner shop. If not with their parents, then with a family friend, but never alone.

* * *

He knows everyone at the Whyte Wyrm, but Hog Eye has been his favourite ever since he thought him how to play pool. His dad brings them with him, sometimes, when he needs to have a 'quick' chat with someone. There are a lot of light signs and lights there but they are always turned off. They always go during the day. Dad said not to go there by themselves, especially not at night.

Mustang is gruff and seems standoffish but he teaches them about motorcycles, and Jellybean soaks it up like a sponge and looks at him with eyes full of wonder. He softens towards them after that. Calls her Little Lady and calls Jughead Junior, fondness dripping with every word, reluctant but real.

* * *

He and Jellybean are playing on the street and there are rough looking men there, strangers, watching them with hungry eyes and their mom shows up out of nowhere and drags them away away away.

She and dad talk behind closed doors that night and he leaves and doesn't come back for days. (He reeks of sweat and blood when he finally comes back)

* * *

His dad looses his job and he and Archie don't see each other for awhile.

(Archie comes to the Southside after they haven't seen each other in weeks and he knocks on Jones's front door and Gladys goes white when she sees him there alone. She calls Mr Andrews and he is there in minutes and he barges in, runs to Archie and hugs him tight._ Don't ever do that again_, he says, _the South is dangerous_._ You can't do this._ He sounds so upset, so so upset.

Archie looks ready to cry and he doesn't understand what the big deal is, _I just wanted to play with Jughead_, he says. Mr. Andrews stares at him for a few seconds and then he raises his eyes to meet FP's and they don't say anything but they are talking and Jughead will struggle to find words to describe that type of silent conversation the first time he tries writing a short fictitious story.

_Okay_, Mr. Andrews says finally, _but you have to call and arrange it first. How about next weekend?)_

The play dates resume, but by silent agreement they never truly mention their parents again (Archie doesn't tell Jughead when his mother leaves and Jughead doesn't tell Archie when his mother and sister leave). They don't talk about Northside and Southside.

* * *

Jughead walks back from school and the difference between the North and the South is obvious the moment he crosses the bridge. It hurts and he yearns and it makes him green with envy.

* * *

The streets are dirty, the people scared and the smell of pot seems pervasive. He hates the smell of pot. He hates the needles in the back alleys. Hates that most people avoid leaving the house at night.

Hates the way certain people look at him, judgementally.

There's no serpent on his jacket, no tattoo on his shoulder, his neck, his back. No tattoo anywhere in sight, or out of it. But everyone knows whose son he is. Everyone says it's just a matter of time, like he is just a snake hiding in the grass, waiting to strike. It doesn't help that his eyes are sharp and that Mary, sweet Mary who sells honey at the market, once saw him angry with his teeth bared, gleaming white. She said he looked just like his daddy, before he beat someone to a pulp. _FP never wanted this life either_, she whispered, _and look at him now_.

* * *

Mom being gone hurts. Jellybean being gone guts. The calls don't help. They are rare and short and his sister cries on the other end. He starts calling less and when he does, he only speaks of good things.

* * *

Jughead sees something he shouldn't, on his way back from school. Serpents breaking someone's bones and the screams of pain. They see him and they nod in recognition but they don't stop. He walks away. (Mustang looks different in the night, with blood on his face and brass knuckles raised).

* * *

Archie talks about girls and Betty, a girl, looks at him with stars in her eyes and he doesn't see. She sighs, forlornly, when he walks away.

* * *

FP starts drinking heavily and doesn't stop. The trailer stinks of puke and booze and FP doesn't get angry when he's drunk just sad. He's gone for days sometimes and Jughead goes to Whyte Wyrm and drags him home, dumps him on the bed and takes off his shoes.

_Come here, boy_, FP mumbles when Jughead turns to leave and he grabs his son's hand when he does, weakly. _I love you, Jug, _he slurs and there is something heartbreaking in his voice. He passes out as soon as he says it and Jughead leaves the room and doesn't cry.

* * *

He calls his mother but she doesn't pick up.

Jellybean calls, hours later. _Mom just saw that she had a missed call,_ she says, _Is something wrong? _

_Nothing's wrong, _he says and his voice is steady.

* * *

He begs his father to stop and his dad makes promises he can't keep. He breaks them in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, in the dead of night when he stumbles back in and tries to be quiet and ends up being too loud, the way drunk people do.

* * *

Jughead goes to Pop's to meet Archie and Archie doesn't show up. He sends a text later, apologizing and not explaining and it's fine. It's fine.

He pays for his milkshake and walks out without buying anything else. He'd kill for a burger but he's on a budget and he can't afford one right now. He had to get a milkshake and not just because they're delicious but because he always gets one when he and Archie meet there and he doesn't want to be obvious about how much he can and can't afford and-

He closes the door behind him and ignores the way Pop's eyes follow him, sadly.

* * *

Betty is distant but she was never close and it doesn't work when it's just the two of them. Archie's absence is too loud.

* * *

Archie is working at a construction site and he is growing, his _muscles _are growing and the girls are noticing (Miss Grundy, Miss Grundy, _Geraldine,_ who is a woman Archie, she's a _woman_) and his mother is gone and Betty is acting weird and Jughead is acting weird and he writes and plays music and _music_, man. Music is good, so good. Geraldine kisses him and touches him and he feels like he could fly when she looks at him. (_is this love_, he wonders and _love doesn't need to be hidden_ and-) The world is candy coloured. The rest is just a shadow (writing on the wall).

* * *

Jughead finds a job at the Twilight Drive-In and the owner lets him sleep there.

It takes FP a week to notice that his son has moved out, and by then it's too late to complain. He wonders how he missed it (he knows how he missed it).

The Drive-In is at the edge of the Serpent territory and he wages war to extend it and make that place safe. Make his boy safe.

Jughead notices the Serpents moving in across the Drive-In, notices that there is always someone there when the movies are playing, often his own dad, with his bike, in the back. He keeps his distance, watchful and silent and sad, his knuckles bruised.

* * *

He manages to save enough money for a nice 4th of July trip with his best friend and away from everything and everyone else and it's going to be good. It's going to be _so _good.


End file.
